In the land of dragons!

Now we do not really know what is going on but so far we have discovered 3 dragon eggs in the nice town of Oriental, NC.  It wasn't expected but…….who are we to not believe??!!

Moma dragon

and a future dragon

To backtrack, we have gone through Wrightsville Beach and had a good time there.  One dinner we met a ton of new cruisers, one of which, sv Baccalieu is now docked right next to us on the town docks in Oriental.  We also met up again with Blind Faith who we last met in the Bahamas.  From there we went back outside and did a day sail/motor up to Beaufort.  We were going to hang there a day or so but the t-storms changed our decision and we, like last year made it all the way up to Back Creek, an 88nm day.  We stayed there for two days as the storms kept coming through but on Friday the weather cleared and over to Oriental we went.

Lokking south on the ICW

We have always gone by this town but this season we timed it right with the winds and were able to pull into the free town dock at 0930 for a two day stay.  Our opinion is now that the town is as nice as any we have visited and will probably try to come back many more times.  Check out the web cam and see if you can find Nati!     http://www.towndock.net

downtown Oriental

Looking north

Oriental Inn & Marina

Nati & Baccalieu on the town dock

An old harbor building

They like their pets here!

Not too bad, huh?

Saturday with the farmer's market

Looking into the harbor from the bridge

One reason for the visit was to repair/replace one of our mixing elbows on the port engine.  Deaton Marina is a Yanmar dealer and they came through with the part and we were able to reassemble the exhaust system with no problems.  We are now a happy two engine family once again.

Old with the temporary patch 

New!

Tomorrow we will start moving again.  Only 180 statue miles from Norfolk!